ROTHSCHILD – The village of Rothschild is looking for a new fire chief.

Marc Hill, who had been chief of the Rothschild Fire Department for the past year, submitted his resignation Friday, one day after a meeting of the village's Police and Fire Commission, which met behind closed doors to consider "employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility."

The chairman of the commission, Nick Smith, referred any requests for information about Hill's departure to attorney Kevin Terry of Ruder Ware. Calls to Terry weren't immediately returned.

The 34-year-old Hill, who said he was not at Thursday's meeting, said he was told the village "went in a different direction" with the position and is no longer going to have a full-time fire chief.

"That's all I was told," Hill said. "They weren't going to have a full time chief anymore."

Hill, who made $48,000 a year in the job, said Rothschild had a part-time chief before he started on Sept. 24, 2013. He said news that the village wanted to revert to a part-time chief didn't catch him offguard.

"(The village) never had full-time chief before, so I guess I wouldn't say it was surprise," Hill said.

Hill was not specifically named in the agenda announcing the Police and Fire Commission meeting, so taxpayers would not have known the fire chief's position was being discussed.

Village Clerk Debbie Espeland, who put together the agenda, referred questions about the agenda to Terry. She referred questions about resignation documents to Terry as well.

The Rothschild Village Board is scheduled to hold a special meeting at noon Wednesday to discuss Hill's resignation and talk about hiring an interim fire chief.

Village President George Peterson said another reason for the meeting is that he needs to sign a separation agreement and he wants to get the Board's approval first.

"There's an agreement, a termination agreement that has to be signed by myself, the (village) clerk and the chairman of the Police and Fire Commission," Peterson said. "I just said that I would not sign a letter until I had authorization from the board to do it."

The fire department is now in the hands of Glen Engebretson, at least on a temporary basis, Peterson said.

"Engebretson was doing it on a temporary basis until Marc started," Peterson said. "He's filling in until we come up with a solution, either a temporary or long-term solution."

The village hired Hill about nine months after former fire chief Steven Fritz died of an apparent heart attack in December 2012.

Bob Dohr can be reached at 715-845-0660. Find him on Twitter as @BobDohr1.

SAFER fire chief retiring

Rothschild isn't the only department looking for a new fire chief. Paul Wirth, chief of the South Area Fire & Emergency Response District, has announced his retirement. According to Sept. 9 letter to the SAFER District commissioners and SAFER board of directors, Wirth said his official last day as chief will be Oct. 12, but because of vacation days his final day in the office will be Oct. 3. The SAFER District Commission was scheduled to discuss appointing an interim chief and talk about options for filling the position Tuesday evening.